Sign not only attracts more customers but plays role in police hunt

(EMAILWIRE.COM, February 26, 2013 ) Menomonie, WI -- When Decker Jewelry in Pennsylvania decided to add an LED sign, they knew it was an opportunity to drive up traffic; however, the sign has likely outdone any early expectations, as it has helped nab not only drive up sales, but also capture two thieves who had previously robbed the store.

The digital sign was instrumental in driving up sales by not only catching the attention of passers-by, but also in the ability for ladies to give their boyfriends and husbands a very big hint.

The most notable advantage of the sign was the use of it to catch crooks. On Election Day in 2012, two men snatched up three 1-karat engagement rings from a sales associate before they fled from Decker Diamond Jewelers in Ebensburg.

Later that day, after the company filed a police report and surveillance photos, the store owner Dan Decker decided it would make sense to use the billboard to help catch the thieves as well.

"When things all settled down ... before I left that evening, about 8 o'clock, 8:30, I decided, you know what, I've got two good pictures of these guys; I'll just put them up on the sign," Decker said in a recent telephone interview. "So I cropped the pictures up and put them up and just put underneath, 'Wanted for Theft.'"

The following day, while preparing to open the store, Decker and his employees noticed there were people pulling off the road in order to take pictures of the sign and post it on their social media pages.

"And it just went crazy," he said. "Within a half an hour, we were getting texts back, and not only texts from the Facebook post but from people who took pictures in the parking lot ... It all started intertwining."

It was less than 12 hours later when he had a number of suspected names that seemed to come up more than others. One in particular kept popping up, and within 24 hours he had one of the thieves assuredly identified. The thief turned himself in on Friday, and the second followed suit a week later.

Decker then decided to continue updating the sign, thanking the police and updating the public as the case progresses, and the reaction from that has been "unbelievable," he said.

"Customers are laughing; they'll stop in and say, 'Hey, we watch your board to see what's happening with your thieves,'" he said. "So it's been something that people have been talking about; I mean it's really kept people looking. Between the sign and Facebook ... the combination of the two really made a difference."

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